TV review<\/h2>\n
\u201cMaul \u2014 Shadow Lord\u201d could\u2019ve been an all-timer for \u201cStar Wars.\u201d Creator Dave Filoni\u2019s latest animated series is tense, gorgeous, gritty and loaded with pulse-pounding action, and it puts Darth Maul \u2014 one of the franchise\u2019s most enduring baddies \u2014 front and center. Sounds like a winner, right? Yes and no.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 10-episode season, now streaming on Disney+ with new episodes dropping Mondays through May 4, aims to expand and explain what Maul got up to between \u201cStar Wars: Episode III \u2014 Revenge of the Sith\u201d and \u201cStar Wars: Episode IV \u2014 A New Hope\u201d in the most explosive and entertaining way \u201cStar Wars\u201d canon permits. On paper, the concept has tremendous potential. In practice, though, it amounts to little more than a great-looking but thematically slight tangent that would rather scratch an itch than tell a story.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If holding grudges hallmarked strong moral fiber, then Darth Maul, voiced once more by Sam Witwer (\u201cStar Wars: The Clone Wars\u201d), would be a saint. Following the events of \u201cRevenge of the Sith,\u201d the former Sith remains hellbent on resuscitating his reputation as a crime lord and exacting his revenge against the Empire, but he needs help. His scheming takes him to the decidedly un-Imperial planet Janix, where he seeks young Jedi Padawan Devon Izara (a bored-sounding Gideon Adlon) for reasons he won\u2019t fully disclose \u2014 at least not in the eight episodes screened for critics. Complicating Maul’s search is police detective Brander Lawson (a game but forgettable Wagner Moura), who vows to apprehend Maul and protect Devon without Imperial intervention. Good luck with that, buddy.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaul\u201d feels as thin and superfluous as it does because \u201cStar Wars\u201d has already explored the eponymous former Sith in a meaningful way multiple times. We\u2019ve seen his beginning and his end. When \u201cThe Clone Wars\u201d brought Maul back from the dead, it saddled him with a dogged, uncompromising torment, one that would cement the character as one of the franchise\u2019s most striking staples. \u201cRebels\u201d refashions Maul into an aging hermit, ultimately denying him his revenge and saying goodbye to a villain whose evolution proved formative for Lucasfilm Animation and \u201cStar Wars\u201d as a whole. Because it\u2019s answering a question few people are asking, \u201cMaul\u201d is redundant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Filoni and Co. play the bones of their dead horse like a xylophone, recycling a song and dance that\u2019s already been performed to perfection. Witwer\u2019s rousing voice work injects just enough life into the proceedings to make them bearable, but he can\u2019t save them alone, and he shouldn\u2019t have to.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Also keeping the story\u2019s draw on life support are the visuals, which rank among some of the best \u201cStar Wars\u201d has ever given us. Sure, Lucasfilm\u2019s animation has reached a point where every shot in each of its shows is gallery-worthy, but \u201cMaul\u201d tops them all. Each moment feels painted and labored over, and the finishing touch \u2014 a subtle smear that adds texture and poignancy to every frame \u2014 raises the bar for the company\u2019s future output.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The action, too, kicks serious butt. Maul has always made for a riveting underdog, and the series soars when it remembers that. In fact, the show\u2019s best duel is one Maul loses, further confirming that his popularity stems not from him being the best or the most skilled, but the most broken.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It’s a shame that this is as far as Filoni takes it. Maul\u2019s latest outing comes up short because it feels like a first draft of a better show. Key elements, namely its villains, its plot and its depth (or lack thereof), reek of neglect and underdevelopment, becoming the least compelling iterations of themselves and failing to make any sort of impression. The Inquisitors \u2014 the lightsaber-wielding enforcers Filoni and Co. rely upon far too often \u2014 are so dull, so template-y and unremarkable, that any fear or weight their presence carries evaporates.\u00a0The good news is, \u201cMaul \u2014 Shadow Lord\u201d will get the room it needs to grow. Lucasfilm just renewed it for a second season, so hopefully Maul\u2019s next adventure adds something, anything<\/em>, to a character raring for another reinvention.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yakimaherald.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" TV review \u201cMaul \u2014 Shadow Lord\u201d could\u2019ve been an all-timer for \u201cStar Wars.\u201d Creator Dave Filoni\u2019s latest animated series is tense, gorgeous, gritty and loaded with pulse-pounding action, and it puts Darth Maul \u2014 one of the franchise\u2019s most enduring baddies \u2014 front and center. Sounds like a winner, right? Yes and no.\u00a0 The 10-episode […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2361041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[21741],"class_list":["post-2361040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/\u2018Star-Wars-Maul-\u2014-Shadow-Lord-review-A-beautiful-but.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2361040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2361042,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361040\/revisions\/2361042"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2361041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2361040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2361040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2361040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}